‘Nothing new’ in Geingob education report

The findings and recommendations from an investigation into the grand failure of learners in last year’s national examinations are "nothing new", stakeholders have observed.

All Peoples Party (APP) secretary-general Vinsent Kanyetu is among those who feel the report, produced at the insistence of President Hage Geingob, has not revealed any unknown elements that may have contributed to the poor outcome.

"Those things, like inadequate classrooms and other challenges faced by the ministry, are things that we already know. What we need now is a strong leader and an implementer," he said.

Moreover, a University of Namibia academic remarked that "it is unheard of that any government office has ever produced a report, let alone a credible one, within two weeks."

Following the results, Geingob has been pressed on multiple fronts to relieve education minister Anna Nghipondoka of her duties.

Find the reasons

The results from the Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Ordinary (NSSCO) and Advanced Subsidiary (AS) levels, released early this year, showed that less than 6 000 out of 38 019 learners who sat for the examinations managed to qualify to progress to tertiary institutions.

The high failure rate saw Geingob demanding an investigation by the education ministry to discover what went wrong.

After he was presented with the results, Geingob called on stakeholders not to blame one another but to work as a collective for favourable outcomes.

Reasons known

As per the report, among the contributing factors to the high failure rate were the impact of Covid-19, inadequate infrastructure, a teacher shortage, and a lack of a monitoring and evaluation system in the education sector, among other issues.

"Notable among the challenges are the poor state of education infrastructure, the shortage of classrooms and teaching and learning resources, the absence of systematic support at the school level for both teachers and learners, declining discipline among learners and teachers alike, and weak monitoring and evaluation at all levels of the basic education business," the report reads.

However, according to Kanyetu, the findings are not new, and more needs to be done to address the high failure rate.

Let her go

He said Nghipondoka "is not a hands-on somebody. She is just a mere junior secretariat. She cannot be at the helm of a ministry. She has already proven... that she is a successful failure."

He added: "So therefore, the failing rate was also contributed to by the lack of training of the teachers on the new curriculum. Here is a new system, and you did not train your staff. How do you expect your staff to execute your new system?"

He insisted that "we need for the head of the minister to roll. Geingob must fire Nghipondoka if he is really serious about the future of our children and the education system."

Bring in the old

Kanyetu suggested the Geingob replace Nghipondoka with the current minister of works and transport, John Mutorwa.

Mutorwa is a former minister of education.

After the announcement of the results, the Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF) also made a call for Nghipondoka to resign from her position, saying that she must be held accountable.

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